Six of Sarah Ferguson's companies winding down

Six companies linked to the former Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, are being wound down, documents filed with Companies House show.

Ferguson is the director of all six businesses that are due to be struck off the register in ten days - unless legal cause is shown to prevent it.

It is unclear what the firms' activities were, although one is related to public relations and another to retail. None appear to be very commercially active.

Their closure comes in the wake of further revelations from the Epstein files which suggest the ex-wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor told the wealthy paedophile how desperate she felt over her financial difficulties.

Email exchanges between Ferguson and Epstein indicate she asked for his financial advice over how to deal with her £6m debt pile while he was still in jail for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Being named among the Epstein files is not an indication of wrongdoing.

A spokesperson for the former Duchess of York has been approached for comment.

The companies that are set to close are S Phoenix Events, Fergie's Farm, La Luna Investments, Solamoon Ltd, Philanthrapreneur Ltd and Planet Partners Productions Ltd, none of which have any public profile.

Listings for five of the six companies state there is an "application to strike the company off the register". That means the company will stop trading and will cease to exist.

The sixth, S Pheonix Events, which also notes the receipt of an application to strike off, lists Sarah Ferguson as the person authenticating the application on behalf of the company.

Ferguson is listed as an active director for three other businesses registered with Companies House: Ginger and Moss, set up as a lifestyle brand to sell tea, jewellery and housewares, a "motion picture production activities" business called Coat, and Librasol, classified under "artistic creation" on the official register for private companies.

All the companies being dissolved were set up more than a decade ago. Most are classed as "dormant companies", with very little or no reported recent commercial activity.

Ferguson is the sole remaining director for all of them.

Late last year, documents show she submitted an official change to her details for all the firms from Sarah Duchess of York to Sarah Margaret Ferguson.

There have been reports of Ferguson's financial difficulties for many years, but the publication of the files of Jeffrey Epstein's correspondence has laid bare how much pressure she was under.

One of the files suggests she told Epstein she was about to "freak with exhaustion" at a time when he was still in custody in Florida and that she also leaned on him for emotional support.